Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/158

144 way the truth that she never went home nowadays without expecting to find the temple of her studies empty and the poor priestess cast out. This conveyed a full appreciation of her peril, and it was in rejoinder that Sir Claude uttered, acknowledging the source of that peril, the reassurance at which I have glanced. "Don't be afraid, my dear: I 've squared her." It required indeed a supplement when he saw that it left the child momentarily blank. "I mean that your mother lets me do what I want so long as I let her do what she wants."

"So you are doing what you want?" Maisie asked.

"Rather, Miss Farange."

Miss Farange turned it over. "And she 's doing the same?"

"Up to the hilt."

Again she considered. "Then, please, what may it be?"

"I would n't tell you for the whole world."

She gazed at a gaunt Madonna; after which she broke out into a slow smile. "Well, I don't care—so long as you do let her!"

"Oh, you monster!" laughed Sir Claude, getting up.

Another day, in another place, a place in